Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 39, No. 6, June, 1994
- Автор: Bashover Albert, Crawford Dan
- Год: 1994
- Язык: английский
- Год: Dell Magazines
- ISBN: ISSN: 0002-5224
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 39, No. 6, June, 1994». Краткое содержание книги:
Unfortunately, what Sacha really wanted most, he couldn’t have: a son to carry on his business. After the birth of his daughter Miriam, the doctors had told Sacha and his wife that no more children would be possible. It was true that Miriam was almost everything that anyone could have wanted from a child. She was healthy, beautiful, and smart. She was even graduated from college with honors, and from law school at the top of her class, but she was still a girl. How could a man brought up with remnants of old-country culture still sticking leave a business like his to a mere girl? Ridiculous! Well, if he couldn’t have a son, he would have the next best thing, the best son-in-law available.
When Miriam announced on her graduation from law school that instead of going into the family toy business she was going to work for the law firm of Caruso, Kelly and Cohen, Sacha decided he would have to act. Miriam was well into marrying age, and a son-in-law was too important a matter to be left to chance.
That was when he noticed Jerry Solomon.
Jerry seemed to be the answer to Sacha’s prayers. Sacha had watched him ever since Dave Rabb, his vice-president in charge of engineering, had hired Jerry to work in the drafting department. He was the right age. He was single. He was ambitious, and he was smart. Not just smart — brilliant. In the short time Jerry had worked there, he had submitted many clever ideas and designs for toy mechanisms, some of which had become Car-now Industries’ biggest sellers. He was not even bad looking. If he had any fault, it was a streak of young stubbornness. Oh well, Miriam had a bit of that, too. Sacha saw Jerry as himself thirty years earlier.
Sacha had Dave Rabb create a Research and Development department and put Jerry in charge of it. That gave Jerry direct charge over six engineer-draftsmen who used to be his co-workers. It gave him a private glass-walled office, and use of the engineering department secretary. More important, it gave Jerry the status to be invited to Sacha’s Long Island estate, along with Dave Rabb and Henry Kaye, the sales manager, for a weekend of “business discussions.”
Though subtleties usually eluded him, Sacha knew how to get what he wanted.
Jerry felt uncomfortable. The size of the Carnow estate awed him. His past experiences had not included being served very expensive wine in very expensive crystal, in a “library” that had more square feet than Jerry’s whole apartment. Sacha and the two senior company officers were talking together when Jerry arrived. After a brief pause for greetings and introductions, they went right back to their discussion.
It might have been the age difference between Jerry and the other three men, but he thought of himself as “Jerry,” while the others were “Mr. Carnow,” “Mr. Rabb,” and “Mr. Kaye.” He felt like a little kid at a party for grownups even though, because of his promotion, he was supposed to be on a first-name basis with the others. He tried to contribute to the pre-dinner conversation, which was mostly about the upcoming toy show in New York City, but Sacha, Dave, and Harry formed a closed conversational group and kept the ball bouncing among them. Even when Jerry could find something to say, he had little chance to say it.
Jerry found himself focusing on the fifth person in the group, a tall, attractive brunette about Jerry’s age, with intelligent bright black eyes. She had been introduced to him by Sacha as, “My daughter, Miriam — she’s a lawyer.” Sacha had introduced Jerry to her as “our resident mechanical genius.”
Miriam, smiling slightly at Jerry’s obvious discomfort, sat next to him while the three older men talked. When a complaint from Sacha started the three senior men talking loudly and simultaneously, Miriam leaned over to Jerry and half-whispered, “This always happens, Mr. Solomon. Dad only pauses to breathe, and as long as it’s Dave and Harry he wants to talk to, we might as well not be here.”
Her voice was velvet. It seemed unconsciously seductive. It was hard to believe that she shared the same gene pool as the juggernaut Sacha.
“I don’t mind it. It will give me a chance to get to know you better.” Jerry said it first as a polite, flirtatious conversation starter, but he realized with surprise that he really meant it. “By the way, my father is ‘Mr. Solomon.’ My name is Jerry.”
Miriam flashed a smile. “Well, now that we’re on a first-name basis, perhaps you’d like to look over the grounds while those three are determining the future of the toy industry. I could use some fresh air, and the gardens are really beautiful this time of year. They’ll never miss us.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
Miriam rose and took Jerry’s arm.
“Dad, I’m going to show Mr. Solomon — Jerry — the grounds. We’ll be back before dinner.”
Sacha was arguing with Dave and had his back towards Jerry. He did not turn around, so Jerry couldn’t see his small, sly smile. “Go... go ahead,” he said.
As Jerry and Miriam strolled through the estate gardens, they talked about the flowers, the last Broadway shows they had seen, a concert and an art show that, coincidentally, they had both gone to, and New York politics.
In the past, Miriam had had trouble with men. She knew she was goodlooking enough, but she had difficulty hiding her intelligence, and that combination of brains and beauty was intimidating to most of the men she met. As the evening wore on, she began to feel that Jerry was not only unfazed by her intellect, but possibly even attracted to it.
The after-dinner conversation was mostly about the upcoming toy show until Harry Kaye brought up the problem of the fishing kit package.
“We’ve put a load of dough into developing it, and still the fishing kit is a lousy seller. What we need is a package that will catch the eye. Jerry, you’ve given us some pretty novel packaging ideas. How about working on something that would give this item a shot in the arm?”
“I’ll look into it, Harry, but I’ll have to admit, I don’t know much about fishing.”
“What kind of an American boy doesn’t know about fishing?” asked Sacha.
“I guess it’s the kind of American boy who never really went fishing.” Jerry tried to put a light english on the conversation.
Kaye was persistent. “I’ll tell you what. You come out with me on my boat next Sunday for some fishing. It’s a great way to relax. I’ll lend you some gear. Try it once and I guarantee you’ll be hooked.”
Harry looked pleased with his pun, but Jerry looked uncomfortable. “Harry, when I was about ten years old, my dad tried to teach me to fish. He took me to the local park in Rochester and showed me how to bait a hook with a live worm. That made me a little sick right then. After a while I caught something. It was only about five inches long, and the hook was caught in its eye. Dad removed the hook for me and threw it back in the water. The little thing flopped around for a while. It was obvious that it wouldn’t live long. I realized that I purposely killed something — and for no particular reason. I still can remember that feeling, and I didn’t like it. I’m sorry, Harry, but I find that the thought of hunting or fishing is a real turn-off for me.”
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Kaye asked with just a touch of disdain.
“No, I’m not. But I can’t see going out of my way to hunt something.”